Montessori School will close after 40 years; auction

After 40 years, the Montessori School of Oak Ridge,728 Emory Valley Road, has closed, and a silent auction will take place Saturday.

Carolyn Krause/Special to The Oak Ridger

After 40 years, the Montessori School of Oak Ridge,728 Emory Valley Road, has closed, and a silent auction will take place Saturday.

The silent auction will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the gymnasium of the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center. Look for Montessori signs to find parking and the gym.

The school, located next to the Holiday Bureau and not far from the water tank, was closed as a result of declining enrollment, a news release stated. Proceeds from the auction will go toward covering the costs of the school closure.

Furniture for sale ranges from an adult-size office desk to assorted child-sized wood chairs and tables with miniature cups and plates.

Appliances include a microwave oven and a toaster oven. Office equipment available for bidding includes a wireless router, file cabinets and a copier-fax machine.

The original Montessori School of Oak Ridge opened in 1977 at the old Oak Ridge Unitarian Church on Robertsville Road. The first teachers were Kathy Kelly, Valerie Allen and Jo Kelley, the administrator of the current school. Phil Sklad was the chair of the first board of directors.

The school is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation chartered by the state of Tennessee for operation as a parent-owned cooperative. It was certified by the Tennessee Department of Education for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, and it has been “dedicated to providing a high-quality Montessori program to children ages 2 to 6 years from all racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds.”

The Montessori method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. Her method has been used for more than 100 years in many parts of the world.

She viewed children as naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment. Her method values the development of the whole child — physical, social, emotional and cognitive.

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